JAPANESE FILMS

Evangelion after Fukushima (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of the series. Part 1 is here. As we learned about the true extent of Fukushima accident and nuclear fallout, our feeling toward the government, the energy industries and the media shifted from distress to distrust, then to disgust. Many people, from independent journalists to political activists, from artists to housewives, used the term “the Great HQ Announcement” to describe this failure of major media to deliver vital information and critical view of the Fukushima incident.

 
JAPANESE FILMS

San Francisco, December 9, 1941

via Shorpy This is the photograph of Cafe Ginza at Buchanan Street in San Francisco on December 9 1941.  (The photograph is found at Shorpy, the ever-inspiring photograph archive site.) It speaks volumes, many different stories … the Japanese American Community of the prewar era, the strange calmness of the morning after Japanese attack on U.S. soil, the photographer who took this photograph (John Collier), and the demise that would fall upon the proprietor of the Cafe and the doctor next door in coming years. But for now, we would visit Bukkyo-Kai Hall (Buddhist Temple Hall) and Kinmon Hall (Kinmon …

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Bluebird Photoplays Ad

One of the reader of this site, Beth, gave me this tip for the full-page ad for Bluebird Photoplays in Internet Archive.  I like the use of minimum set of colors, abstract background and quiet, yet evocative typeface. As I discussed before, Bluebird Photoplays had a tremendous effect on early Japanese film-making. The accompanying text on the next page is interesting as well. “.. BLUEBIRD Photoplays (Inc.) was the first producer to buck the star system – the ruinous practice that has been responsible for the high-priced but low-grade features that have wrecked many an Exhibitor.” If this is true …